Friday, October 2, 2009

Paris Monuments Partie: I

So it has occurred to me, as I am sure it most have occurred to you, the readers, that I have yet to write about any of the famous sights. You must be wondering what in the world I am doing here, and still I have not seen any sights. Though the truth is I have seen so many. I am not exactly sure where to start. Though, I suppose, I should start by writing about some sights before this becomes another pointless accomplishment in my life... because what good is a blog abour Paris if I don't talk about any of the monuments and museums.

Now within the first three weeks, I hit most of the major ones. The Eiffel Tower which is way bigger then I thought, but with my determined roommate I managed to fit me into a picture with the tip of my finger touching the tippy top.

The Arc D' Triomphe was neat, however, it is at the center of the bussiest roundabout. Roundabouts, don't have any lanes so car just drive haphazardly around until they get to a road the road they would like to get off on, in which, they cut everyone else to get across. It took us at least a half hour to find the underground tunnel that leads into the monument.

I have visited the Louvre...well at least 1/8 of it. The thing is huge. It is nearly impossible to do it all in one day. It is mostly filled with classic works... which, is not my taste at all. I saw the Mona Lisa, though, her smile held no mystery for me... In fact I think it was just plain ordinary. Perhaps that was Leonardo da Vinci's point the whole time.

I did fall in love with the Musee d' Orsay, which, is a museum full of impression art. It has the look of an old train station, because it was modeled after a train station. In fact, the central train station in New York was modeled after it, as I found it. Though art has never spoken to me the way music has. I must say I was truly touched by paintings such as Venus de Milo. I am definitely planning a returned visit.

Now, I promise you that every time I make eye contact with the Notre Dame I am having a love affair with it. I don't believe there is a time that you can not take pictures, night or day that Notre Dame will not be simply gorgeous. The stain glass is stunnning inside and out. The flying buttresses were really neat. (I am letting out a chuckle just typing this... because I was explaining how I needed more technical terms to use in my blog to describe monuments. I was offered the words "flying buttress" by a fellow IES student. I still am not completely sure what it means but I would hate for it to go waste.)